Reunion
by Echante
Summary: Addison goes to her high school reunion, but wanting to reverse her teenage status as a nerd, she takes Mark with her. Post season three.


A/N: Post sixty-days, Addison doesn't leave Seattle and she's about forty by then right? Well for my purposes she's thirty-eight. Well I probably won't be posting for awhile because I'm going to California tomorrow and I don't know if I'll have internet for the next three weeks. But yeah. Enjoy!

XXXXXX

Addison Montgomery grinned a little maliciously. She's a Montgomery, she reasons, so obviously she has to have a little evil streak in her. Besides, her husband (ex), was the one who called her Satan in the first place, he probably has it coming to him… maybe. She smirked and walked up to the two of them, "Mark." She exclaimed excitedly, "I need a favor!"

"I can't do it?" Derek asks her confused.

"No." she snorts, then pauses and adds, "well you could, but I'd rather have Mark."

Mark grins, "What is it?"

"Yeah Add…" Derek adds a little bitterly, she laughs inside, "What is it?"

She faces Mark when she says it but enjoys the look on Derek's face, "My high-school is having a twenty-year reunion…" she paused a beat to groan out, "ugh, I'm getting old," but then continued, "but yeah, I was this big nerd… like huge nerd in high school." Mark and Derek both smirk. "Anyway, I wanted you to come… you know… to show off."

"What?" Mark says.

"What!" Derek exclaims.

"What?" Addison asks innocently.

"I am ten times more charming then Mark." Derek informs her indignantly.

"And he has better hair." Mark adds laughing.

"Mark's hotter." Addison shrugged, "Deal with it."

Derek stomps off.

"So…" Addison begins, turning back to Mark, "What do you say?"

Mark smiles brightly, pleased that she asked _him_, "Anything for you Addy… anything for you."

XXXXXX

Addison shuffles around nervously, wringing her hands. "You know?" she says, "You didn't have to make your parents loan us their private jet."

Mark shrugs, "It's not like they ever use it, and besides there were no flights out that had first class seats." He smirked and she smiled back at him shyly.

"Thanks." She says, diverting her eyes, and softly extends, "you know… for everything, and for coming with me and stuff."

"Hey. No problem. You're still my best-friend. Regardless of what happened." He hits himself inwardly; he'd probably never amount to anything better then Addison's slave, whether he liked it or not.

She nods, "I'm sorry about the bet thing." She sighs at him, "I didn't mean to make you try and do something like that…" she half grins, "I know how competitive you get and stuff."

He turns away and ignores the words, ignores the fact that it kills him that she thinks he agreed to the bet for any other reason than because he loved her. Instead he changes the subject, "Tell me what I should know." He suggests.

"Okay." She nods along, "Melanie Anderson and Lucy Langdom were the…" she winces because the wording is awkward, "'cool' kids at my school. They both made my life miserable."

"Bitches." He spits, "Can I beat them up for you?"

She laughs, "No. But thanks. Um… Cameron Bolten was the jock. You know… it was mainly those three… he played football… and yeah. He um… he used to…" she turned away, tears beginning to well up.

Alarmed Mark rushed over to her side, rubbing circles into her shoulder, "What'd he do?" he asked vehemently.

"Nothing." She wailed… "Just stupid things… he tricked me into thinking he liked me and then made a fool of me in front of the whole school… and he was mean. He like called me the most terrible names… names I wouldn't repeat to children…" she hiccupped and threw herself into Mark's chest sobbing, "Oh God… I don't think I can do this."

"Hey… hey." He says into her hair, closing his eyes to maximize the comfort of her proximity, "They're not going to know what hit them. They'll take one look at you and they'll know their words didn't mean shit to you okay?" she nods into his shoulder, still crying, "And besides," he adds with a protective growl, "If they don't get that, my fist'll make sure they understand okay? Don't cry Addy. Shhh."

"Well damn." She laughed through fat, wet tears, "You're good at that."

He smiles because in all of Mark Sloan's life, the one major goal he'd kept was to keep her happy. And her watery smile proved he was closer to that goal.

"Addy?" he asks quietly, a whisper into the depths of her hair. She nods, still submerged in his chest, "We're about to land."

She wipes the tears from her eyes and laughs sheepishly, "I guess I ruined all my make-up huh?"

Mark shakes his head, "It doesn't matter." He tells her genuinely, "You're beautiful either way."

XXXXXX

Her heart speeds up and skips over several beats when they approach the door to the retreat but she shakes her head firmly, she's lived too long and experienced too much to be fearful of stupid shit like this. But still, her lips tremble.

Mark sees this and sends a reassuring smile her way, grabbing her luggage as she leads the two of them towards the check-in. "Oh!" she exclaims suddenly, "Savvy should be here, probably with Weiss… just so you know… she did go to this high-school and all… but we weren't exactly friends until like the last month when we discovered we were going to the same college."

Mark nods, "So who were your friends in high school?" he asks.

She blushes, "I didn't…" she mumbles quietly into the air, "really have any."

"Really?" he's surprised and stupidly shows it.

She nods miserably, "I was that nerdy." She sighs, "Oh God." She moans for the hundredth time, "Why did I agree to come to this?"

Mark kicks himself and then tries again, hoping for redemption, "Because you wanted to prove them all wrong. And of course, you wanted to rub how hot you are in their faces." He grins at her and she can't help but giggle. Later though, when they're following their luggage up an elevator with an usher and he slips his fingers through hers she can't help but think maybe this is why she was here. Maybe Mark was the reason she came. But if he was, why was she looking for something she threw away in the first place?

XXXXXX

"I'm sorry to subject you to this." She chatters nervously, running from hanger to hanger, looking at dress after dress, "I really hate this you know? Of course you know… I've only said it like a billion times today…" He raises a finger to her lip and smiles at her.

"Calm down Addy." He laughs, "It'll be fine."

She sighs, "I know, I know… I just… I'm just… trying to prove something that's all… its kinda like redemption."

"Of course." He says confused, and then diverts his eyes when she begins to strip into her bra.

She laughs when he does, "You don't have to you know… you've seen me in much, much less." She smirks.

"And not that I haven't enjoyed that A LOT," he tells her, still facing away, "But we were sleeping together then… its different now."

She stops abruptly, "What happened to you?" she asked sharply.

"What?"

"Since when do you… care… enough not to… you know… cop a feel at any chance you can possibly get?"

"Since I met you." He says softly, eyes glinting slightly against the backdrop of the orange-red light.

She shakes her head, "nuh-uh…" she says angrily, "you don't get to say that. You had your chance… you had several chances and they're all screwed up Mark… whatever feelings you feel for me… they just aren't as deep as you think." She says this with an unnoticeable tint of despair but clenches her jaw resolutely.

"Fine." He growls, "Let's just get this dress on you and head downstairs."

She glances at him sharply, "Mark."

"You insist on telling me what I feel… I think I feel we should hurry the fuck up."

"I…" and suddenly the anger has left her face and it's replaced by fear, "I don't know if I can."

And just as quickly as she crumpled he teetered, rushing immediately to her side, "Listen," he says grabbing the emerald knee-length dress she picked up first and slipping it over her head, "You are the most beautiful woman I've ever met. And that's inside and out… so you're going to wow them. Okay? They're going to love you. All of you."

She nods, and smiles.

"Okay?" he asks and she replies tentatively, "Okay."

And then he grabs her hand and leads her to the ballroom.

XXXXXX

"Savvy!" she squeals as the blonde approaches, and then runs up to her and flings herself against her, squeezing the air out of the shorter woman.

"Add…" Savvy manages to choke out, "I need air…"

Sheepishly Addison lets go of her friend and reattaches herself to Mark's arm, "Are you two…?" Savvy trails off.

Addison looks around and sighs, "No. I just…"

Mark smiled, "She needed some arm-candy and I agreed to come along."

Weiss laughed, coughing into his fist, "whipped."

"What?" Addison looks at him confused but Savvy elbows him in the ribs and he shuts up.

"You ready?" Mark says down to her, and she marvels slightly that he's tall enough to look _down _at her; Derek was always a pretty equal height.

"Yeah." She says, and tightens her grasp around his hand, squeezing tightly as he leads her into the fray. "As ready as I'll ever be."

XXXXXX

The dinner is fine, mainly because all she's gotten is complements and a few suggestive glances at most, but she still glances around nervously because her main tormentors haven't arrived yet.

"Maybe they aren't coming." Mark suggests but Addison shakes her head, "They RSVPed. They're coming. They're _always _late. They'll be here."

Mark, to his credit, had played the faithful boyfriend role quite well, so well in fact, that it scared her to an extent. She didn't quite know where the goose bumps that rolled along her arm came from, but she knows they appeared shortly after he started rubbing them and smiling at her, and kissing her on the forehead and feeding her chocolate and strawberries.

XXXXXX

When dinner was over, Addison and Savvy convened to the pool side, while Mark and Weiss settled for annoying their women. Mark watched as Addison stretched herself along a reclining pool chair, grinning as her long legs rambled on past her bikini bottom. He grinned mischievously and slowly dipped his towel into the pool, and once satisfied that Addison's eyes were securely shut, he drizzled the dripping cold water over her belly-button, causing her to yelp and pull her earphones out of her head. "Mark!" she protested, and then her eyes widened when he went to kiss her over the wetness, "What are you doing!"

"Shhh." He grinned and kissed her on the lips, "We have to be convincing."

"Not this convincing." She grumbled, "People'll probably think we're about to go at it right here."

"We could…" he raises an eyebrow, "you know… go at it. If you really want."

"No!" she squeals a little too quickly and high-pitched to be believable, she lowers the volume of her voice and whispers, "Mark. We've tried that… we've been there… it just… well it doesn't end well okay?"

He opens his mouth to reply but is hurt by the irritation in her eyes, so instead, he lowers his and mumbles, "I'll be right back," and hurries off.

Addison sighs, "crap." She slaps herself on the forehead, she forgets too often that the man did have feelings for her, and she forgets to respect them. She begins to pick up her scattered stuff, and walks past Savvy on her way out.

"Where you going?" Savvy calls after her, Weiss's arms curled around her.

"To find Mark." Addison calls back, "Sometimes, I can be such a bitch."

XXXXXX

"Mark Sloan?" A voice calls him from behind and he swirls in its direction.

A grin breaks across his face, "Cam!" he walks over to the man, "You son-of-a-bitch, how are you?"

"Still kicking ass. What the fuck are you doing at my high-school reunion?"

"My date went to your high school."

"Oh. Really? What's her name…"

"Mark!" Addison chooses to interrupt at this time, "I'm so sorr…" she stops short. "Cameron." She greets and then digs her feet into the floor.

"Seriously?" Cameron laughs, "You're here with Addigeek?"

"You know him?" Addison murmurs quietly in Mark's direction.

"Your… this is… Oh." Mark says, realization dawning.

"Mark?" His name comes again from another direction, walking quickly towards them is a petite blonde with the lowest cut shirt he's ever seen on a nearly forty-year old woman.

"Hi?" He stutters towards her, reaching for Addison's hand and feeling his heart drop when she refuses his.

"What are you doing here?" she asks and he cringes as the other woman leans in to kiss his cheeks, he looks towards Addison and sees that she's none too happy about this new development.

"And who's this?" she walks over to Addison, as if inspecting her, "I'm Melanie." She thrusts a hand in front of her face, "What's your name?" she says patronizingly.

"Mel." Cameron laughs, "That's Monty. Remember?"

"Monty?" Melanie raises an eye-brow at Mark, "You're going out with Monty? Geez. What a loser."

"She's right there." Mark protests.

"Its okay." Addison mumbles.

"So…" she continues her assault when Cameron loses interest and wanders away, "I say you ditch Monty and you and me get a room."

"Um… no thanks." He says, eyeing the spot where Addison had been standing. He'd never seen her so vulnerable, he'd never seen the confidence gone from her eyes and it pained him. It _killed _him that the people he was once friends with did this to her. Had done this to her over and over and over again.

He looks back over at the blonde whose fingernails were busy scraping up and down his chest and he figured fuck it, this was the woman responsible for Addison's misery. This was the woman responsible for _his _Addison's misery. She'd damn well pay. And he was going to make her.

"I don't want to sleep with you!" he protests loudly. He smirks in his mind when her eyes widen with shock.

"What?" she asks. Cameron is across the hall but he has a smile splayed across his face.

"I'm sorry if you can't get any but there is no way I'm going back there just because you're desperate. You're not even worth the effort, now get the fuck off." And with two giant strides he breaks free of her grasp.

"What the hell man?" Cameron intercepts him, "Not that that wasn't asshit funny but I've been there, she's skank but good skank."

"You disrespect Addison ever again and I'll take you out." Mark growls into his face.

"What the hell man. What happened to you?" Cameron smirks, "Monty is the one who got you this upset?"

"Take that back." Mark grabs the collar of his shirt.

"Hey!" Cameron protest, and in his desperation he punches Mark across the face.

"Argh!" Mark yells, and throws him down, "Bastard." He says, and walks away, aware that going any father would have him removed from the hotel, "Stupid bastards." He mumbles under his breath as his hand traced the bruise that bled across his face. "Ironic." He scoffs, he'd just sewn this side of his face up only a year ago.

XXXXXX

"Addison open the door!" he calls.

"I knew this was a bad idea. I knew it." She screams back, bordering delirious, "I just..." and she opens it just a crack so he could slide through, "I just…" she distances herself from him, standing at the opposite end of the bedroom, "I… Okay!" she flails her arms up in the air, "I just really, really wanted to spend time with you. I'm so stupid… I'm so stupid Mark." And he crosses the room to wrap his arms around her, "I don't know why… you hurt me so much, and every time, you make me feel as stupid and as vulnerable as Melanie and them always have." He winces at the comparison, "But…" she continues, "I just… Mark… I just love you… that's all. And I don't know why. I can't explain it. It's so stupid. I.. Oh God I just told you. Fuck."

"Hey." He soothes, brushing her hair, "I just told them off for you. Okay? Addison…" his voice chokes because in all the time since he cross a continent for her, he's never heard her admit she loved him, "I love you," he whispers into her hair, "I love you so much. You have no idea."

"No." she cries vehemently, pushing his arms away, "If you loved me, then you wouldn't have cheated on me, you wouldn't have slept with Callie, you wouldn't have broken our bet."

And now he's angry, "And if _you_ really loved me, _you_ wouldn't have broken our bet, and because I loved you…" he sighs as he starts to lose steam, "because I love you so much," his voice cracks, "I didn't."

She glances up sharply, "What?"

"It's day 83." He smiles through tears, "And I still love you so much. Even though you've subjected me to this."

Her lower lip trembles and he reaches over to brush away her tears, "Mark?" she gasps.

"Yes?" he kisses her eyelid and it flutters against his touch.

"I was scared…" she whispers, "I was so scared that you would break it, and I figured if I did too, then it wouldn't hurt as much when you did… I guess I just wanted to think that your feelings for me were stronger then mine for you because if that was the case then… the disappointment would have been much easier to handle."

"But my feelings for you are stronger… they're stronger than anything in this world. Addy… I'd cross mountains for you."

She giggles, and raises a hand to touch his face and her eyes widen with shock, "You're bleeding."

"Ironic huh?" he grins at her.

"Like last time you came after me."

"Like last time." He agrees.

She smiles, "You know, I never told you this… for obvious reasons, but that day, when you were walking around with a gash across your cheek… I thought that was so badass… it was the sexiest thing ever."

He grins, "Oh really."

She looped her arms around his neck and nodded into his forehead, "Oh God. I'm so sorry Mark. I love you so much."

"I love you too."

"And I…" she shuffles around so she's settled on his lap, "I think you should break your celibacy Mark."

"Oh yeah?"

She laughs as he begins to kiss her neck and his finger tips make their way across her stomach, "Yeah. I'm pretty sure it isn't healthy to go that long without sex."

"Well." He says, "It definitely isn't healthy to go that long without sex with you."

"I love you." She whispers into his head, "I love you so much Mark."

"I know. Addy." He kisses her full on the lips in response, "I know."

XXXXXX

A/N: And the end. Though I can definitely see a sequel to this… and I don't write sequels. Hehe. We'll see. If I get enough interest.


End file.
